The South Carolina Review 50.2 now availableSCR has an illustrious history, having published the likes of Joyce Carol Oates, Eudora Welty, and Kurt Vonnegut. Now in its 50th year, SCR has a new general editor (the novelist Keith Lee Morris) and a fresh new look.

Scranton Lace, by Margot Douaihy with illustrations by Bri HermansonMirroring the narrative possibilities of fabric that is both luxury and utility, this poetry collection occupies the space between the real and imagined. Forty-four poems and twenty illustrations interact to explore themes ranging from interarts expression to the time/timelessness of derelict spaces to queerness and love. The illustrations incorporate relief prints made from actual lace manufactured in the now-abandoned Scranton Lace factory.

Let Us Imagine Her Name, by Sue Walker“Let Us Imagine Her Name is as remarkable as any book I’ve read in a long time: a memoir of a life that began with a huge strike against it, by a woman trying on identities to find one that best fits. Sue Walker’s writing sparkles. The whole book is an amazing tour de force certain to fascinate and regale.”
—X. J. Kennedy, author of In a Prominent Bar in Secaucus

Mapland: Poems, by Gary Allen"This is poetry that goes for the jugular. Allen's poetry is marked by its potent, dynamic syntax, and also by his storyteller's sensibility."
—Alan Gillis, Poet & Editor of The Edinburgh Review

Eye of the World, by Ronald Moran"The great poems are poems of retrieval or thanks or both, and Ronald Moran's plain-spoken, affecting lyrics are squarely in this last category. He searches for and finds the people, now gone, who made his life what it is: his parents, the girls he dated, his beloved wife Jane. In doing so, this grateful, gifted poet teaches us how to burrow into and recognize the riches in our own lives."
—David Kirby

Bayou Coeur and Other Stories, by Larry Gray"Forget Duck Dynasty and True Detective. Read Bayou Coeur and enter a world as different from the homogeneity of American life as étouffée is different from Campbell's soup. Gray leads us through this unique culture like a skilled cajun accordionist laying down his chords and pursuing a melodic line that evokes nostalgia and mystery and resolves into surprising harmonies."
—Bill Dowie, author of critical biographies of Peter Matthiessen and James Salter in the Twayne U.S. Authors Series

Dilemmas, by William L. Ramsey"The most striking thing about Dilemmas is the deft manipulation of tone—these poems dance around from polemical to erotic to nostalgic to intimate to stubborn to scientific and back again and then off again to other climes. It is rare to find one voice well-tuned enough to pull this off, but William Ramsey manages beautifully. With a lovely formal touch—meter, rhyme and free-verse abound—Ramsey’s new poems remind us just how many component timbres and modes are often needed to make a single authentic sound."
—Nathaniel Perry